Latin American Spanish: A Rich Yet Unified Linguistic Geography

It has been said that the biggest achievement of humankind is language. Through language, we communicate and express our thoughts freely. Yet every region of the world has a different culture, different languages. Within language, groups there are different dialects... all of which are wonderful and amazing. By observing different cultures and listening to different languages, one feels the need to break through the barriers of incomprehension. It is much like the barrier one must break when growing up in order to express opinions. The hunger to communicate is not easily sated when two people speak different languages.

Many scholars have studied the rich idiomatic landscape of Latin America, where while Spanish is the main language spoken, as English is in the United States, you will find many cultures that have preserved their native languages. One is Quechua, a language with a long and rich history that dates from the Inca Period.

When foreign companies attempt to break into Latin American markets, they face many challenges. One is learning how to analyze the data they obtain from focus groups representing the markets they are aiming at. The first problem they need to solve is the language barrier, because it is the door to understanding the cultures of these markets.

There are courses available from online sources that offer many options to learn languages. One of the best for learning Spanish may be found here.

Only after you break the language and culture barriers can you begin to hope to interact and, in the case of a business venture, make inroads into new markets. Of course, you could hire an interpreter, but if you speak the language, you will achieve far better results with the potential costumers in your target market due to the personal touch.

This topic is a complex one, but a few pointers will help you begin to learn about the diversity of language in Latin America despite the homogeneous face it may project due to the prevalence of Spanish.

One way is to surf the web. Explore the cultural terrain. The Latin American News and Information Center, or LANIC, is a great resource to begin with. Through links in the References section at the end of this article, you can find information about festivals, tips about the local culture and more. You can often find some webpages with e-mail addresses of webmasters or other authorities on different subjects.

For example, the SINIC webpage (also known in Spanish as Sistema Nacional de Información Cultural, or National System of Cultural Information) is the Colombian Government webpage that reveals, with their user-friendly menu, the wonderful and diverse cultural aspects of Colombia. Not only can one learn of the different dialects and indigenous languages still spoken in Colombia, but also about traditions, cuisine, dance festivals, music and details about daily life. Websites like SINIC give valuable information to would-be entrepreneurs about where to go and how to expand their businesses. In this way, the Colombian government, like others, uses virtual resources to attract business. One enterprise at the vanguard of attracting markets due to its cross-cultural focus is tourism, because it lets the world know what a country may have to offer to international markets.

As a Latin American journalist, I can suggest with confidence that the national newspapers, which often are published in English and other languages, are the best sources for learning about the social landscape and discovering if it is a business friendly environment.

Returning to the subject of language, there are many dialects of Spanish, such as the Andean dialect of Colombia, the Mapudungun of Chile, the Marabino dialect of Venezuela. There are differences in vocabulary (such as one finds in English, as in "sweater" or "pullover"); you will hear suéter, pulóver or chaleco. This sort of variations does not undermine the basic unity of Spanish, any more than the dialectical differences between the English of England and English in the United States cause problems.

Finally, remember that even though you will encounter different regional dialects of Spanish, you will be understood in any of Latin America's fascinating countries regardless of the dialect of Spanish you may have learned.

Books that can help with your Spanish: Spanish Subjunctive; Past tenses; Pronoun usage